Joy and I are off in our 7-1/2 year old Prius on a 7,500  mile (more or less) circuit of the US, to see what this lovely country looks like these days, and find out what people are thinking about in this year of political discontent. I haven't driven across the United States since 1951, Joy never. We plan to take a week or so to get to Santa Fe, where a friend has generously offered us her house. We'll make it our base camp for day trips to ruins, pueblos, canyons, desert and mountains, not to mention the many attractions of Santa Fe itself. We'll learn why the area meant so much to artists and writers ranging from D. H. Lawrence to Georgia O'Keefe, Cormac McCarthy, Douglas Adams, Barbara Kingsolver, and many others. Then we'll make our way west and north, through more Indian country, on to the Grand Canyon, up into Utah to see Zion and Bryce Canyon, angling up through Idaho and into Washington, winding up towards the end of July in Bellingham for a reunion with son Tom and his family.  Present plans are to come home in early August through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,  and NewYork, arriving back in Gloucester in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Joy's brother Bill Appel and his wife (and my first cousin) Hallie in Manchester on August 18.